Jenny Calendar
Jenny Calendar is a fictional character in the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). Played by Robia LaMorte, Jenny is the computer teacher at Sunnydale High School. Unbeknownst to Buffy or anyone else, Jenny Calendar has been sent to Sunnydale to keep an eye on Angel. In the first two seasons of the series, Jenny Calendar is Rupert Giles' primary romantic interest. She serves to counter his technophobia and is a rare adult female role model for the young women in Buffy's circle. During the second season her true identity is revealed: she is Janna of the Kalderash, a member of the Gypsy tribe that cursed Angel. In response to an elder's visions that Angel is suffering less due to his growing romance with Buffy, Jenny is instructed to impede their relationship. As a result of events during the second season storylines, Angel loses his soul and becomes evil, reverting to his former ways of torturing and killing, eventually making Jenny his victim. Among the main cast, she is the series' first recurring character to die, and the manner of her death is noted for its disturbing effect on audiences. Biography Helping the Scoobies Jenny was a computer science teacher at Sunnydale High whose modern approach did not sit well with the technophobic Rupert Giles. She called herself a Technopagan and was a member of a cyber-coven. Jenny assisted the Scooby Gang and as they worked together against evil, Jenny and Giles gradually fell in love. Jenny's teaching methods and interests were at odds with, and seemed to infuriate, Giles."I, Robot... You, Jane" Her abilities with computers enabled her and Giles to complete a ritual within the internet to get rid of a demon called Moloch that had infected computers. She later approached for the Ritual of Restoration]]Giles after she becomes anxious over several signs of an impending apocalypse she's become aware of."Prophecy Girl" Giles soon told her the truth about the Master's plan and Buffy Summers's true identity. Jenny was present when the Hellmouth was briefly opened during Buffy's battle with the Master. Because she was of close distance to the Master at the time of his death, Jenny was kidnapped by the remaining members of the Order of Aurelius and almost had her throat slit as part of a ritual to revive their leader before Buffy intervened and destroyed them all."When She Was Bad" Relationship with Giles in The Dark Age]]Jenny's flirtation with Giles gradually became a slow-burning romance. However, the romance was hindered when Giles' past came back to haunt him and Jenny was possessed by a demon Giles had summoned in his youth."The Dark Age" In the aftermath, Jenny avoided Giles for some time, but she was eventually ready to forgive Giles and the two of them rekindled their romance."Ted" Angel's hands]] Death After Buffy lost her virginity to Angel,"Surprise" Jenny disclosed that she was part of the Clan Kalderash, who had cursed Angel with his soul and years later sent Jenny to watch over him. Jenny was not told that Angel would lose his soul, but the Scooby Gang were still angry that she had concealed her identity. She decided to make it up to Buffy by attempting another restoration and translated the spell using a computer. However, Drusilla sensed Jenny's plan and warned Angelus, who tracked down Jenny, destroyed her computer and printer, and snapped her neck, killing her. Angelus left Jenny's dead body in Giles's bed with a trail of romantic symbols leading to the scene."Passion" Giles was devastated and sought revenge by trying to kill Angelus as he felt that he could not live without her. Xander Harris viewed Jenny's murder as evidence that Angel was beyond redemption. Legacy After Buffy rescued Giles from his ill-conceived act of revenge and visited the grave of the ill-fated Jenny, Buffy revealed that due to the loss, she was finally ready to slay Angel. However, Angelus missed Jenny's disc version of the ritual and Buffy and Willow found it again accidentally months later, surprising them as Jenny had told them there was no way to restore Angel's soul. The gang ultimately decide to try it, noting that it seems to have been Jenny's last wish. While the first attempt fails,"Becoming, Part One" Willow is ultimately able to complete Jenny's work and restore Angel's soul."Becoming, Part Two" Later, Drusilla manipulated a badly tortured Giles into seeing her as Jenny and revealing what was needed to awaken the demon Acathla."Becoming, Part Two" When the Scoobies later discovered that Angel had been resurrected, Xander spitefully reminded Buffy of her failure to stop Angelus from killing Jenny when she had the chance; however, both Buffy and Angel won back some good faith and acceptance among the gang during the subsequent scuffle over the Glove of Myhnegon."Revelations" On Christmas Eve 1998, the First Evil assumed Jenny's form to torment Angel into killing Buffy or himself."Amends" At some point, Giles sacrificed his memory of the day that they fell in love in order to bind a demon that was possessing a little girl.Live Through This Proceeding the destruction of Sunnydale, former Watcher Duncan Fillworthe began feeding the newly activated Slayers to a demon; when confronted by Giles, Duncan insisted that the Slayers, especially Buffy, deserved to die for betraying the Watchers Council, reminding Giles that Buffy's relationship with Angel resulted in Jenny's death."Safe" Skills and Abilities Jenny was extremely good with technology, to the point that she ran a computer class at Sunnydale High School and was able to write a program that was able to translate a lost language, something that no one had been able to do for a long time, not even her own clan. Though she wasn't a practicing witch, Jenny had some proficiency in the dark arts, considering herself a "techno-pagan" rather than a witch, saying she didn't have the power of a witch. Willow noted Jenny as a "dabbler" in witchcraft when explaining to Buffy about what appeared to be a spell of hers they found. As a result, Jenny displayed great knowledge of the occult and was able to cast the Circle of Kayless online with Giles' help. She also seemed to believe herself capable of the Ritual of Restoration, something that was beyond Giles despite his years of study of the occult and his misspent youth. While Willow managed to cast it as her first spell, she only succeeded because the Ritual took control of her and she was able to study Jenny's things on witchcraft for some time beforehand. Jenny also was able to cast bones and recognize portents of an Apocalypse. Apparently she had several spells she could and would cast as when she and Buffy found the Ritual of Restoration, Willow called it "one of" Jenny's spells. Behind the Scenes *She was portrayed by Robia LaMorte. *Despite playing Cordelia Chase's teacher, Robia LaMorte is about the same age as Charisma Carpenter, only older by a few weeks. *The character was originally intended to be named "Nikki Calendar", but this was changed to avoid on-set confusion with actor Nicholas Brendon who was commonly called "Nicky". *The death of Jenny was never originally meant to occur. The original plan had been for Oz to be the character who met his end at the hands of Angelus, but that plan was changed after the fan reaction to Oz had been so positive. The grisly demise was then dealt to the character of Jenny. *Her death was later mirrored in the death of her lover Giles, whose neck was also snapped by Angel. However, whereas Angel killed Jenny while in vamp face because Joss Whedon didn't want the audience to truly hate Angel's face, Angel killed Giles in human face. *When approached with returning to play Jenny as a disguise of the First Evil, Robia LaMorte, who is very religious, was very skeptical about the role, erroneously considering it basically the Buffyverse equivalent of Satan. Appearances ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' ''Buffy'' Season Eight * Safe (Only mentioned) ''Buffy'' Season Nine * Live Through This, Part One * Death and Consequences, Part Four * Spike and Faith ''Buffy'' Season Ten * Freaky Giles Day See also * Clan Kalderash * Enyos Kalderash * Magda Kalderash References Category:Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters Category:Buffyverse witches Category:Fictional Gypsies Category:Fictional schoolteachers Category:Fictional deceased Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1997